Creator
Benjamin Franklin Ells
Title
The Dialogue Grammar.
Coverage
South Hanover, Ind.
Publisher
Hanover College Press
Date
1834
Subject
Ells (1805–1874) was a fervent author of educational books. The English language, he wrote, was the youngest of all languages and would “be the last, till time shall have been lost in the vortex of Eternity.” He championed English as a world language: “Behold [English] spreading its ample arms, embracing every continent, and grasping in the isles of the Sea! Hark!” Yet with its vast population, the U.S. suffered half the people to live “in ignorance of their mother tongue.” For helping spread literacy, he hoped to be “hailed with grateful emotion.” Perhaps he was.